Word of the Day

Friday, January 21, 2005

omnipresent

\om-nuh-PREZ-uhnt\ , adjective;

Present in all places at the same time; ubiquitous.

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Quotes:

It was rather that myth was omnipresent; the whole people thought in this way and were long confirmed in their belief.

-- Jacob Burckhardt, The Greeks and Greek Civilization

But the music of Bortnyansky was exultant, and the canticleswere borne aloft to God the omnipotent, the omniscient, the omnipresent.

-- Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, How it All Began (translated by George Shriver)

The novella moves at a pace as sluggish as that of the omnipresent moon making its way across the limpid summer sky.

-- Tobin Harshaw, "Pay the Piper", New York Times, November 14, 1999

Civilization is the preserve of the rich, with their polished cars, their locked houses and their omnipresent police force.

-- Peter Conrad, Modern Times, Modern Places

Origin:

Omnipresent is from Medieval Latin omnipresens, from Latin omni-, "all" + praesens, present participle of praeesse, "to be before, to be present," from prae-, "before" + esse, "to be."